Netanyahu’s moment, part 2

I’ll be posting notes in anticipation of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress tomorrow. This is the second in what I think will be a series of three or four such notes. Bill Kristol’s Weekly Standard editorial “Netanyahu’s moment” provides the theme.

Prime Minister Netanyahu will be speaking at the annual AIPAC policy conference in Washington today. C-SPAN is televising much of the policy conference and posting videos. C-SPAN 2 is televising the AIPAC policy conference live this morning starting at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern); C-SPAN will also be televising Netanyahu’s speech to Congress live tomorrow morning at 10:45 a.m. (Eastern). We’ll post the text and video of Netanyahu’s speeches as soon as they are available.

President Obama has employed the tried and true Alinskyite tactics of which he is so fond to stigmatize Netanyahu, his speech, and Israel as well, for that matter. Obama is making his bed with Iran and will brook no interference from Congress, let alone the pushy Jew from Israel.

Obama has therefore sought to transform support for Israel into a partisan matter. He has also played the race card to the same intended effect. At last count 34 Democratic congressmen have declared their intent to skip Netanyahu’s speech. Here is CNN’s tabulation of the 34 by name. Elliott Abrams draws on his personal experience to explore what is happening in “U.S and Israel: The manufactured crisis.” Caroline Glick captures an aspect of this story from the Israeli side in “In Israel’s hour of need.”

As we stand on the precipice, Netanyuahu seeks to persuade us to oppose our coming deal with Iran. Dore Gold explains why the deal is a bad one. Major General Yaacov Amidror does so at greater length in the BESA Center paper “A problem of nuclear proportions.”

At this moment, with the United States on the verge of a monumentally bad agreement with a formidable enemy, Netanyahu speaks for us. That’s how Quin Hillyer puts it.

The Iranian mullahs have pursued their war against the United States since their ascension to power in 1979. Their relentlessness has found its patsy in Obama. Like everyone else on the world stage, they have taken Obama’s measure. He is eager to give them even more of what they want. The only question is whether they will take it.

The slaughter and disillusionment of World War I set the backdrop of the Munich Agreement. Winston Churchill himself gracefully acknowledged as much his great speech condemning the agreement. We have no comparable excuse. We have only ourselves to blame along with whatever accounts for the misfortune of having elected Barack Obama twice to the presidency of the United States.